My first-ever official promotion

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Effective today, I’ve just received my first ever promotion at work.  It sounds like something that probably should have happened at least a few times in my career, given the fact that I’ve been working as a graphic designer for nearly two decades, but seriously, this is the first time that I’ve ever received a promotion.

Typically in the past, if I ever wanted to pursue more money or actually advance my career out of complacency, the onus has really been on me to usually leave a place and seek out employment somewhere else, where I’d make more money and/or get a better title along the way.  I’ve never really taken titles seriously nor have I ever really feared about starting at the ground level, so despite my long career, I’ve bounced around a good bit, needless to say.

But considering that I like my job, the company I work for and (generally) the team I’m on, when an opportunity arose for me to advance internally, I thought about it for a minute and had one of those brief moments of soul-searching and realization that this was the perfect opportunity to actually-really-truly take my career seriously in a long-term and sustainable manner.  It took a little bit of time going through the interviewing and selection process, but I was pretty stoked when it turned out that I was the guy chosen to advance up the ladder.

So today marks the first day of work; in a new role.  It’s a new experience for me as instead of an office full of new faces, it’s an office full of familiar faces, except that I’m under a different title, new role, and actually have reports that I’ll eventually be fully responsible for.  I know there are a lot more meetings and emails and other Office Space-y things that go along with a corporate gig, but I’m also making more money, have some better benefits, and at a point in my life where I realize that I’m not getting any younger and should probably start taking the future seriously, I feel like I’ve taken a positive step in the right direction.

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WWE’s got to ease up on the historic international events

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I have a theory about WWE pay-per-views; do we still call them pay-per-views anymore, considering they’re all included with the WWE Network anyway?  But anyway, I have a theory about the monthly shows that the WWE puts out: the less effort it looks like they put into their title logo cards, then the less effort viewers should expect from the show itself.

Naturally, this isn’t perfect, definitive and doesn’t apply to all shows; WWE Fastlane had quite the impressive graphic treatment in the production of its marketing, buildup and actual show, but the card itself actually turned out to be quite lackluster.  But for the most part, it’s no secret that the WWE dumps more money into their big four ppvs of the year (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series), than they do any other show throughout the year.

And as of this year, 2018, WWE’s gotten into this hysteria over producing shows in other countries, almost for no other reason than to call them historic first-time events, to help drum up interest, hype and other attention.  It started with “The Greatest” Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, and was followed by the United Kingdom Championship Tournament, where it was held at, for the very first time, the Royal Albert Hall in London.  This past weekend was the WWE Super Show-Down, which was held, for the very first time, in Melbourne, Australia.  And during Super Show-Down, I found out that there was yet another international show on the horizon, Crown Jewel which is going to be in Saudi Arabia again, but instead in, for the very first time, Riyadh.

As historically monumental as the WWE likes to tout these international events, make no mistake that they are NOT immune from the shitty logo, shitty show logic.  Look no further than the fact that “The Greatest” Royal Rumble logo was literally the same logo used in January’s Royal Rumble, but had the word “Greatest” added to the top of it, and had their accent colors changed to Saudi red, green and white.  Surprising nobody, the show was horribly sub-par, and the events of the show had nearly no impact on storylines, save for the Reigns vs. Lesnar feud.

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Why do I feel like Venom is going to suck?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

No seriously, that’s not meant to be a rhetorical question.  Aside from knowing that a Venom film was in the works and that it was going to star Tom Hardy, and seeing a single picture of what Venom was going to look like, I couldn’t help but have this feeling that Venom was on the fast track to becoming an automatic stinker.

Really, I’ve got no basis at all to really believe that this movie is going to be bad, but I just can’t help but assume that this movie is going to blow.  A little bit of cursory research about the film only justifies the belief, like finding out that it’s most certainly NOT a Marvel Studios film, but a Sony Pictures production, which we all know how good their last few things have turned out. 

Furthermore, as a result of Sony having already forfeited the rights to Spider-Man, really makes me wonder how a stand-alone Venom film could even come to fruition, considering the fact that the entire basis for the Venom character is basically Spider-Man’s dark side manifested through symbiosis.  Or, it’s the same Venom that was once bonded to both Tobey Maguire Spider-Man and then Topher Grace Venom, and they’re going to do away with Eddie Brock outright.  But either of those are still terrible ideas, and just feeds into the thought that Venom is doomed before it even comes out.

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Going to chalk this up as a white people thing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Gyms on Fridays are pretty much the best time in the world to go to the gym.  Mondays are often times the worst, because it’s the one day when everyone feels guilty for the shit they do to themselves over the weekend, and they overcompensate by making it a point to go to the gym on Mondays, thinking a single day of exercise will absolve them of whatever booze and/or junk food they plowed into their bodies the three nights prior, so the gyms are obnoxiously packed and I want to kill every motherfucker who impedes my ability to have a routine workout.

On the flipside, Fridays are pretty much dead.  Be it pleebs falling back into their usual routines of giving up, giving themselves a little bit of an extended weekend, or any other weak reason, by Friday, gyms are nice and empty, and I’m more often capable of having a nice relaxed workout, without many if any people, interfering with my routine.  And today was no exception, as I was able to have my pick of the benches, never had to look for a single weight, and proceed with my entire routine without any interruptions.

I was in a good mood after finishing up my last lifts.  And then I went into the locker room.

And it was fucking slammed.  Motherfuckers all over the fucking place like cockroaches scattering when you walk into a dark room and turn off the lights.  Everyone in varying states of undress, but just about all getting ready to hop into the shower, to which there are only six of at my particular gym.  When I gathered my effects to shower, I turned the corner into the shower area, and was luckier than a leprechaun at the end of the rainbow that there was one left, resulting in me not needing to wait.  But the point was that, for some unknown reason there were way more people in the locker room preparing to shower, than there were dudes that actually worked out, and actually earned their shower.

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The news acts like this isn’t the oldest trick in the book

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Hardly news: East Cobb mom busted for smuggling in alcohol through her kid’s sippy cup and getting blackout drunk during a matinee

A long time ago when I lived on the south end of town, I remember having lunch at a Chili’s in Peachtree City. While there, the adjacent table was occupied by a mom and like three kids, all of which were different ages, ranging from like 1-4 years old, and naturally, they were loud and rambunctious, with mom having pretty much no control over them whatsoever.

There was a great feeling of relief when they got up and left, because finally there would be some peace and calm to eat to; but not even a full five minutes after they had left, did mom come rushing frantically back into the restaurant, and to the table. The way she was scanning the table made me wonder if she had perhaps dropped her keys or cell phone or something of any actual value based on the urgency plastered on her face.

But then she grabbed one of the plastic kid’s cups that was still on the table, emptied its contents into a nearby water glass, and then promptly grabbed what was left of her margarita and poured the remnants of it into the kid’s cup, replaced the lid and walked out the restaurant as cool as the cucumber in the back of the crisper closest to the refrigeration coil.

It was a true veteran maneuver I’d witnessed, because the savvy in which she pulled this off, there’s no mistaking that this was something that she’s done numerous times.

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DDR the Movie: How bad can it really be?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For some reason, Konami has given the green light for a Dance Dance Revolution film to be created… with a general plot of how the “world is on the brink of destruction where the only hope is to unite through the universal language of dance.”  Or whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.  But yeah!  Film about DDR, a video game where people mash buttons in step to music, with their feet, in an attempt to emulate, dancing.

It goes without saying that this sounds like a colossal flop waiting to happen, but then again Konami, much less the entire video game industry hasn’t been known for success when it comes to translating gaming franchises into somewhat passable films, with few exceptions.

Really though, I’m extremely curious to know what kind of plot a DDR film could possibly have.  If anything at all, I’d imagine the world needing to all start dancing at the same time in order to save the world would have more of a detrimental effect on a planet, what with 6 billion people stomping their feet on the surface simultaneously, creating loads of seismic destruction across the globe, but whatever.  I really hope that there’s some shade thrown to DDR players that hold the rail, because I feel like they’re the ones that have effectively ruined the franchise by making it not so much about the dancing aspect, but the obsessive requirement to get high scores and succeed at clearing stages, even if it makes them look like kids learning to roller/ice skate for the first time in their lives by the way they lean and hold onto the rails for dear life.

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FREE BEEF 2 I MEAN 3

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Y’know, I imagine anyone that knows me and my fascination with trucks that spill food all over Georgia highways might have thought I’d have been beside myself with excitement over the news of this wild story of a truck crashing on I-285, releasing nearly a hundred cows onto the busiest highway intersection in the city.  And for like two seconds, the thought is knee-jerk amusing, but then I come to the realization that unlike all of the other times where some dumbass truck driver overturns and spills their cargo all over the road, these are actually live animals, not processed consumables, and suddenly it’s not really that funny to me anymore.

Sure, every social media comic has a one-liner or a pun or fifty to share with the internet, hoping to get anybody to notice them, but the longer this story unfolded, and the facts began to emerge about how several cows died on impact of the crash, but then many more were running around wild, likely scared out of their minds at the chaos, it just kind of made me sad.

Now I’m not going to deny the fact that I love to eat meat, and just the other day, I pigged out on a litany of beef cuts at a Korean bbq, but I still have empathy for living things, even if their eventual destiny is to become the same beef that’s on the menu at the restaurants I go to.  Frankly, I feel a little better knowing that the cows that become the beef that I enjoy don’t have to live lives where they’re traumatized and put through a wild goose chase before they’re re-captured and sent to die anyway.  I’m not saying I want all the animals that become the meat I eat to be lavished in grapes and living in luxury, but I’d rather not them go through lives of torture either.

When I looked through some of the photos of the cows running around the Metro Atlanta area, there was one photo where the cops in the background were laughing; I get that it’s a unique situation and given the right mood and frame of mind, I might’ve thought it was funny too, but today it kind of irked me, because the cow that they had managed to wrangle was a fortunate survivor of the wreck, but really it’s just being accounted for because their meat and/or their milk has some money to make for someone else.

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